Dolphins Launch Marketing Campaign In Hopes Of Boosting Ticket Sales

The Dolphins are launching a “Football is Back marketing campaign,” according to Craig Davis of the South Florida SUN-SENTINEL. The team soon after the labor settlement was announced on Monday “had cheerleaders and staff conducting several street celebrations in Broward and Miami-Dade counties,” as well as in West Palm Beach. The team also had “personalized videos prepared to send to customers and television ads ready.” Dolphins CEO Mike Dee said that as of Monday new season-ticket sales “were off about 40 percent for this time of year,” and renewals “were also lagging.” The team is “counting on a surge of business to coincide with the rush of activity to add players and open training camp.” That a new CBA “was struck in time for the scheduled start of training camp enhances the hope that fans' anger at the lockout will have minimal impact on the bottom line.” Dee said, "We had our best new sales week last week, sold over 300 new season tickets last week alone, so I think the prelude to what took place (Monday) was the optimism that was in the air, and clearly fans were getting re-energized about football again." The Dolphins “still face a considerable challenge in reaching the goal of returning season-ticket sales to 60,000 that Dee set when he joined the team” in May '09. The total “dropped from a record 61,121 in 2006 to about 47,000 in 2008,” and it has “gained marginally since then to 51,069” last season (South Florida SUN-SENTINEL, 7/27). Meanwhile, TiqIQ.com data showed that secondary market ticket prices for NFL games “are up 20% from 2010.” The Giants and Jets “have seen increases of 30% and 31%, respectively” (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 7/27).